Hey guys just trying to figure out how big i need to have my shop in the future. How big is yours? How many employees and accounts do you have? Im thinking a 1000 sq ft shot would be plenty big for a couple employee operation but i may be wrong.

I currently have 19 employees, just over 40 accounts and never enough storage.;)

srl28

03-29-2010, 04:58 PM

19 employees and 40 accounts? What type of accounts?

Landscraper1

03-29-2010, 05:12 PM

19 employees and 40 accounts? What type of accounts?

Apartment communties, condominiums, commercial, and large estates.
I always wondered why others ask how many accounts I have because, you can never measure the size of a business by how many accounts they have.

J.A.G LAWNCARE

03-29-2010, 05:14 PM

Hey guys just trying to figure out how big i need to have my shop in the future. How big is yours? How many employees and accounts do you have? Im thinking a 1000 sq ft shot would be plenty big for a couple employee operation but i may be wrong.

it all depands on what you are going to do with it .....1 truck and trailer or 2 trucks and trailer.... if you have one truck and one trailer that size will work ...but if you have more it will be very tight , make sure it is deep so you dont need to drop your trailer all the time 1000 make it 20 by 50 door on the end ...

Measure the length and width of everything you want to put in your building.

If you don't have a tractor or skid steer to be able to use pallet racks, then you only have to worry about this number.

topsites

03-29-2010, 06:35 PM

For a 1 man operation I use the basement of the house, it's 1200 sq. feet.

More than enough, it does get a wee tight after about 5 years but dang you
ought to see what all I got in there too LOL

I'm talking air compressor, tire mounters (2), blade sharpener (RBG) station (chair and all), tools, around fall I usually
store well over a thousand pounds (30-40 BAGS) of seed and lime and stuff, then there's tools, oil (100+ quarts) and
all SORTS of parts... Two engines (lol), a troy bilt horse tiller, two push blowers, backup equipment like a backpack and
a handheld and at least two stick things (trimmer + edgers), an assortment of spark plugs (also over 100), and parts and
more parts... Gallons of antifreeze, pint after pint of R-134a, Gallons of shampoo (yes household items too), a friggin'
dynamic digital tire balancer (for the cars), tires for the mowers, tools, a wide assortment of belts, remember I placed
a thousand dollar parts order 2-3 years ago?

I'm telling you that ain't the half of it, did I mention tools? :p

I have down there, a vacuum pump to evacuate an automotive air conditioning system,
oh and an assortment of O-rings for that as well, not to mention the gauges...

If I can't fix it with what I got, I usually dread going to the dealer because I know I'm in trouble.

An arc welder, mind you what I just listed is all off the top of my head, so I might have forgot a few things.

So I think a k sq.feet is plenty, storage racks and bins do help.

Landscraper1

03-29-2010, 06:41 PM

I wouldn't feel safe having some of those things in the basement of my house.

snowjeep

03-29-2010, 07:37 PM

70 resi's and 1 employees and 5 small commercials. The shop is 30x50 and has 2 cars inside and I could use more space.

ohiogreenworks

03-29-2010, 09:13 PM

figure out what size you need and then double it! You can never have too much room!!!

Maple Wood

03-29-2010, 09:45 PM

figure out what size you need and then double it! You can never have too much room!!!
I agree only triple it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a 40 x 54 and it would be great as a work shop only but forget it if you need to store stuff. I have pallet racks in my shop and that does help organize it and add room.

Chilehead

03-29-2010, 10:32 PM

I would love to have a shop. My whole lot is 8500 sq. feet, and I only have room to build a storage shed per local code. It's going up this year, a 10' x 10'. You'd think with all the foreclosures going on that I could find a piece of unimproved property about 1-2 acres in size, but no luck. My future shop will have a solar panel roof and a well for water. It will be totally off the grid.

IndianSprings

03-29-2010, 11:13 PM

We just a three person operation but have a 40x80 shop with two 12x14 rollup doors, we have an attached 24x26 tool room and a 4 bay parking area covered by the shop roof on one side. We have a metal lathe and bridgeport mill, mig welder, torch set up, portable welder three roll around tool boxes an 80 gallon compressor and a little pancake portable compressor. It makes us pretty dang self sufficent. We all our own maint. work on out trucks,tractors and mowers. Saves a ton of money in the long run plus we know it's done right, no matter how many times we have greased and serviced our mowers we make up a maint sheet that has illustrations showing every lube point.

topsites

03-30-2010, 12:21 AM

I wouldn't feel safe having some of those things in the basement of my house.

It's not a regular basement like one might think, more like a crawl space but full size,
dirt floor but I can stand up and walk all around, it is lit and then there exist those
louvered vents all around in the walls so air gets in and out.

There's very little in ways of flammable materials, most equipment if I store it, I drain it and run it dry.
The arc welder is kept inside a box, stored, when I get ready to use it I pull it out and I NEVER use it indoors.
Granted the blade sharpener does throw some sparkage but it sits apart from all else.